Off topic - Desparately seeking Windows 2000 help

[tparrent]

Last week I installed Spybot on my Win2000 machine and it completely messed it up. All of my shortcuts became .LNK files and no longer work. Worst of all, Windows cannot seem to recognize .EXE files. Any other type you can tell it how to open them (like for .XLS use Excel) but there does not seem to be an entry for .EXE

 

This means I can barely run any programs! Internet Explorer works fine but anything else must be opened by double clikcing on an associated data file. For instance, I can get Excel to open by double clicking and .XLS file.

 

I have to do payroll and my Quickbooks refuses to open! When I try the backdoor way of clicking on a Quickbooks file, I get the message that Quickbooks requires IE 5.5 or above. It didn't used to need it!

 

I appreciate any help - particularly how to associate .EXE files with an appropriate command.

 

Woe is me.

[angeloflight]

solution:

1.uninstall that SPYBOT

2. if after uninstall spybot still not fix. reinstall windows 2000

EXE can't be associated because it's the very "basic" of your program. so if EXE is TRULY un-associated. you won't be running anything at all. the windows would be crashed already. BTW. you can see all your file types and associate and change their behavior by going Start->control panel -> folder options-> file types. hope it helps. B)

[orbitalpunk]

also, you can try to repair you current windows 2000 by running the setup again like asi fi you were going to reinstall a fresh one, it will search you computer for other copies and windows and will ask you if you would like to repair it, do that. also, when i mean setup , i mean the dos based one, like if you run the 4 bootdisks for setup or if you know how, boot from the windows 2000 cdroom but you need to change the BIOS setting and make you cdrom your boot device, other wise just use the 4 boot disks for windows 2000 set up and if you dont have them you can create them with the makeboot program on the cd under Bootdisk/makeboot.exe. you cna run it form windows but since you cannot run exe's from there, opne the dos commant prompt and try to run it thru that, other wise just copy it to a floppy and run it in dos. just run that repair option in setup!

[angeloflight]

also, you can try to repair you current windows 2000 by running the setup again like asi fi you were going to reinstall a fresh one, it will search you computer for other copies and windows and will ask you if you would like to repair it, do that.  also, when i mean setup , i mean the dos based one, like if you run the 4 bootdisks for setup or if you know how, boot from the windows 2000 cdroom  but you need to change the BIOS setting and make you cdrom your boot device, other wise just use the 4 boot disks for windows 2000 set up and if you dont have them you can create them with the makeboot program on the cd under Bootdisk/makeboot.exe. you cna run it form windows but since you cannot run exe's from there, opne the dos commant prompt and try to run it thru that, other wise just copy it to a floppy and run it in dos. just run that repair option in setup!

I don't mean to offend you or anything but your description is very confusing even for someone who knows how it is like me. just a suggestion. try to make it a 1 ,2, 3, list so people can follow. i think the best way in his case to reinstall/repair windows 2000 is to boot the computer normally, then pop the windows 2000 CDROM into the CDROM and most likely the auto execute will run the install menu .and pick install from there. it's mouse clickable and no DOS-prompt, no 4 Disks bootup, no BIOS setting is required. by the way. windows 2000 no longer has DOS prompt. it's called "command prompt", "DOS prompt" would be confusing for people with little or no technical background. B)

[tparrent]

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Unfortuantely, I already reinstalled Windows 2000 from the original disk. You can do this without overwriting data. The unfortunate part is that it made absolutely no difference.

 

It's looking like a disk reformat is in my future

 

[tonyuab]

Make sure to partition your hard drive(C:,D:,E:) and don't save your data in the window drive. If possible, install Partition Magic and back up your data before format your drive.

[Guest enight]

hehehee... if you have to format your PC , then install Windows XP... ask your fiancee to mail one to you from China!

 

or if you can read Chinese, find one from net from those Chinese software websites!

[Guest R2D2]

hehehee... if you have to format your PC , then  install Windows XP... ask your fiancee to mail one to you from China!

 

or if you can read Chinese, find one from net  from those Chinese software websites! 

Putungwah!!!!

[TimD]

Wow, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I did a search on Google and the spybot forums and didn't come across anything related to the issues you are seeing.

 

One thing you may want to try is to go into regedit and export the keys for RUN and Run Services. Once exported delete those keys and see if you have better results. If that works then import those keys again and delete each entry one at a time until you find the culprit.

 

It would suck if you had to wax your drive and reinstall.

[orbitalpunk]

well ok , nobody knows what the heck im talking about then. but do yourself a favor and get a program called Drive Image. Its by powerquest, the same makers as partition magic. its the best life saving program out there and is simple to use and reliable. it makes a image file of your partition. you run it when you have your windows nice and perfect. then just run it from windows and it wil automatically reboot for ya, make the image from dos and return you back to windows. thats it. and you will have this image file. to restore you windows from that image, just run the program again and choose restore and select the image file and it will automatically reboot to dos, restore the image and you computer will boot back to the nice perfect windows you saved....

 

if this is still confusing then.. umm.. bah..